While taking a career break for learning and adventure, I am helping shape a bright future for our region in volunteer leadership roles with Triangle Land Conservancy and Marbles Kids Museum and as a strategy coach for nonprofit leaders.

In 2007, I accepted a big risk that turned into an amazing ride; engineering a remarkable turnaround of an underperforming major public/private asset to launch Marbles Kids Museum, which today ranks among the top attractions in NC and most popular children’s museums in the nation. Opening the doors of Marbles ushered in a robust era of creativity, innovation and growth in programs, built environment, employee count and community impact, transforming a nearly empty museum with a deficit budget into a vibrant community hub with 700,000 annual visitors and an incredibly resourceful $10M balanced budget. Together, Team Marbles has become known for our friendly, welcoming and inclusive approach while building a national reputation for highly imaginative exhibits and special events that attract both the young and the young-at-heart! In the 2010s, years of master planning and design for a bold expansion to meet excess demand culminated in an exciting Elevated Play plan that received positive reviews in March 2020 but was quickly paused due to the pandemic closure. During the pandemic period, we led with ingenuity, dedication and purpose to adapt operational and program models to serve growing needs, stabilize financials, and retain community support via an uplifting “Bounce Back” campaign. We revamped design and project goals to align with post-pandemic priorities, and Marbles is now poised to embark on an exciting renovation and addition, both indoors and out!Championing the Marbles mission also paved the way for civic and community leadership recognition and opportunities, allowing me to help shape the future of education, tourism, and recreational and economic development in one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions and beyond.After 15 years as CEO, in 2022 I decided to pass the baton and helped engineer a successful CEO leadership transition, setting up a bright future for Marbles and its talented team of playful professionals.

Working as a freelance business consultant for several years, I assembled and led custom teams to provide business planning and strategic marketing services to companies and organizations in various phases of growth: start-up, scale-up or relaunch. Specializing in brand strategy and positioning, I delivered actionable and effective strategies to align company culture and daily operations around the brand promise.Highlights include positioning a new private equity group to stake a niche position in a competitive market, leading to two marquee national acquisitions still operating successfully today in the health and recreation space; and piloting successful brand and VC pitch strategies for a global home automation startup.

Carolinas Golf Group was a pioneering regional golf course ownership firm during a high-growth era in the business. I led marketing, positioning strategy, team training and culture initiatives, building the company around a customer-centric mission that drove a threefold increase in profitability and helped position us for a lucrative national sale. During this period, highly effective Disney University training courses in quality service, customer loyalty and leadership excellence contributed to our successful venture while greatly strengthening my skills and knowledge for future leadership opportunities.

Summer of MBA school, working with decision makers at corporate giant Coca-Cola imparted a wealth of knowledge in a condensed period. My assignment was to analyze consumer purchase patterns to improve impact of global promotional partnerships with sports and entertainment properties, insight that would prove very helpful when negotiating with movie distributors in my future CEO role at Marbles IMAX.

Led two fundraising divisions and campaign communications during a heyday of United Way corporate combined campaigns, driving a 22% increase in giving in two years. The highlight during our team’s tenure was working alongside IBM executives to automate the annual campaign and introduce computer-based predictive modeling.

Named after the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, Operation Raleigh was a London-based outdoor leadership and service expedition expanded to the US in conjunction with NC Dept of Cultural Resources celebrations of the 400th anniversary of English colonists settling in America. After personally excelling on rain forest and barrier reef conservation teams in Australia, I returned home to NC to recruit additional American participants, leading US marketing and fundraising efforts and attracting the largest corporate donation in global program history. Beyond my HQ duties, I helped conduct rigorous outdoor leadership training in the UK and US and led trail crews in the Colorado wilderness.